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ANALYSIS 

OF 

" ESSAYS AND REVIEWS." 



LONDOW 

PEIXTED BX SPOTTISWOODE AKB CO. 
XE-ff-STKEET SQTJAEE 



ANALYSIS 

OE 

"ESSAYS AND REVIEWS" 



BY 

GEOEGE ANTHONY DEMSON, M.A. 

VICAB OF EAST BRENT, AND 

ARCHDEACON OF TAUNTON. 




LONDON: 

SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO. 

66 BROOK STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. 
1861. 



ANALYSIS 

OF 

"ESSAYS A'NB REVIEWS.' 



The book consists of seven cc Essays and Re- 
views," six of which were written by clergymen of 
the Church of England. b 

a " Essays and Reviews. London : John W. Parker and Son, 
West Strand, 1360. [The authors reserve the right of translation.] " 
The book is now published by Longman, Green, Longman, and 
Roberts, London, 1861, and has reached its ninth edition. 

b " The Education of the World." By Frederick Temple, D.D., 
Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen ; Head Master of Rugby 
School; Chaplain to the Earl of Denbigh. 

" Bunsen's Biblical Researches." By Rowland Williams, 
D.D., Vice Principal and Professor of Hebrew, St. David's Col- 
lege, Lampeter; Vicar of Broad Chalke, Wilts. 

" On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity." By Baden 
Powell, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry in the 
University of Oxford. 

" Seances Historiques de Geneve. The National Church." By 
Henry Bristow Wilson, B.D., Vicar of Great Staughton, Hunts. 

"On the Mosaic Cosmogony." By C. W. Goodwin, M.A. 

" Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688—1750." By 
Mark Pattison, B.D., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. 

" On the Interpretation of Scripture." By Benjamin Jowett, 
M.A., Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford. 

Note on " Bunsen's Biblical Researches." 

B 



2 



The following notice " To the Reader" is pre- 
fixed to the first and to the succeeding editions, in- 
eluding the ninth, or present, edition. 

" TO THE READER, 

"It will readily be understood that the authors of 
the ensuing Essays are responsible for their respective 
articles only. They have written in entire independence 
of each other, and without concert or comparison. 

" The volume, it is hoped, will be received as an attempt 
to illustrate the advantage derivable to the cause of reli- 
gious and moral truth, from a free handling, in a becom- 
ing spirit, of subjects peculiarly liable to suffer by the 
repetition of conventional language, and from traditional 
methods of treatment. 

Upon this notice (i to the reader" it is to be ob- 
served: — 

1. That the independent character of the several 
s< Essays and Reviews," as set forth in the first para- 
graph of the above notice, must be limited to them 
as " written," and previous to their first publication; 
because in, and from the time of, their first publica- 
tion, as appears from the second paragraph of the 
notice, they have been presented in one volume — 
such volume being declared to have one specific ob- 
ject and purpose — and have been arranged under a 
common table of contents. 

2. That, having regard to the fact of this formal 
declaration of a common object and purpose, and to 
the further facts that no one of the several <f Essays 



3 



and Reviews" of which the volume is composed 
has been withdrawn, and that the volume has passed 
through nine editions, the several " Essays and 
Reviews " must be taken to be so identified with 
one another, in respect of such common object and 
purpose, as to form successive chapters of one and 
the same book. a 

I proceed to examine the method by which this 
common object and purpose has been carried out in 
the book. 

I examine : — • * 

1. What is the structure, arrangement, and argu- 
ment of the volume. 

2. What is the argument of the several treatises 
composing the volume, as parts of the main argument. 

3. Whether specific passages be found in the book, 
being parts of the argument of the several treatises, 
which deny, contradict, or disparage the Inspiration 
and Authority of, or are, generally, contrary to, 
Holy Scripture, and which are in other respects also 
contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England, 
as these have been set forth in her Book of Common 

a An instance of the oneness of the object and purpose of the 
several treatises of which the volume is composed, is found in the 
fact that the expression of the idea, " the education of the world," 
appears in at least fourteen passages — in every Essay, more or less. 
In one passage (Essay VII. p. 387) in the exact words; in four other 
passages (Essay II. pp. 51, 77; Essay V. pp. 250, 253), in words 
precisely equivalent. 

B 2 



4 



Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, and in 
her Articles. 

The above is the logical order of the examination 
of the book, and it is the order which I pursue as 
necessary to any exact and sufficient account of its 
contents. 



FIRST HEAD OF EXAMINATION. 

Structure, Arrangement, and Argument of the 
Volume. 

1 The Edu- Essay I. 1 affirms three preliminary principles : — 
the World. («) That the judging and deciding power in man 

is the educated intellect of "manhood," 

guided and " governed " by " the spirit or 
2 Pp. 31, 32, conscience " of the individual man: 2 and that 

36 ' ' ' it is the office of this power to measure truth 

by applying thereto the standard of human 

knowledge and science. 
(b) That the subject matter of such judging and 

deciding power, in respect of all things per- 

3 Pp. 44, taining to the religious life, is " the Bible." 3 
48 ' (c) That " the Bible " has had a " perverted 

4 p. 47. use ; " 4 a and that it is necessary to apply to It 



a This " perverted use of the Bible " is identified, pp. 46-7, with 
the establishment and the use of dogma; and " dogmatism" is^ 
opposed to " toleration." 



5 



a new principle of interpretation, in order 
that 1 " the blunders which may have been 1 P. 48. 
fastened on It by human interpretation" may 
be " cleared away." a 

Then- 
Essays II., III., IV., V., VI. are severally di- 
rected against examples of this (e perverted use of 
the Bible." 

Essay II. against such "use of the Bible" 2 as g.^" 8 ® 11 ' 8 

the sacred history of the dealings of God with man, Ee- 

i i • , -| searches, 

including miracle and prophecy. 

Essay III. against such 66 use of the Bible " 3 in g^J ^ 

respect of miracle, as the principal te external evi- the Evi - 

dences of 

dence." Chris- 
tianity. 

4 Seances 

respect of the office and authority of the Church. Histori- 

ques de 
Geneve. 

I had always thought that ** toleration " consisted in possessing ^' ie 
r » lU , . tional 

dogma, but not forcing it "ab extra on other men s consciences, church 

But the idea of " toleration " disclosed in the Essay is that of not 

having dogma at all. 

In Avhat manner u toleration " can exist apart from the possession 
and the use of " dogma " by those who " tolerate," I profess myself 
unable to comprehend. 

a It is allowed (p. 47-8) that " the hold of the Bible upon the 
minds of believers, and its power to stir the depths of the spirit of 
man," may be " much weakened at first " by this process. It is 
affirmed that, nevertheless, these must be " immeasurably strength- 
ened in the end." It is needless to add any comment upon such a 
statement as this. Compare Essay VII. p. 375. 

B 3 



Essay IV. against such " use of the Bible " 4 in 



6 



1 On the Essay V. against such " use of the Bible " 1 as 
Cosmo- ^ ne Book °^ God's Kevelation ; the particular in- 
g° n y- stance of Revelation, and of belief therein, selected 

for the argument of the Essay, being the Mosaic 
Cosmogony. 

2 Tenden- Essay VI. against such "use of the Bible"' 2 as 
cies of Ee- 

ligious assigning the province of reason, and as denning the 
ir^Eng^ limits of religious thought. 

land, 1688 

—1750. Then — 

Essay VII. prescribes the rules to be laid down 
by the judging power for its own interpretation of 

3 On the the Bible in order to the right use of it, as opposed 
Interpreta- 
tion of to the hitherto "perverted use." 3 

Scripture. The subject of the volume, as a whole, is con- 
tained in a passage, — 

" how and what God really has taught mankind ; and 
whether anything beyond that which man is able and 
obviously intended to arrive at by the use of his natural 
faculties." a 

That is to say, whether there be any Revelation ; 
and, if any, what is the manner and the matter of it? 
This is the inquiry which the book tells us has to 

4 P. 209. be "satisfied." 4 

a Essay V. p. 209. Compare pp. 257 r 258, Essay VI., where 
the deistical position is cited as giving the negative answer to the 
latter part of this query. See also pp. 51, 52, Essay II.; p. 92, ditto; 
p. 113, Essay III.; p. 331, Essay VII. 



7 



Such "satisfaction" the book contemplates as 
attainable by means of the application of the intelli- 
gence and knowledge of educated minds to inquiries 
into the fact and the nature of Revelation ; and by- 
no other means. 

The essential character of the book, therefore, 
consists in the proposal to "handle freely" 1 the «~^°^ CQ 
Bible, as claiming to be the Record of Revelation ; reader." 
and the proposal is rested on the ground that the old 
method of handling the Bible is a i( perverted" me- 
thod, and, as such, has failed ; has become obsolete, 
and is inapplicable to the " manhood of the world." 

This is the foundation laid in Essay I. ; which, 
having been instanced and illustrated in Essays II., 
III., IY., V., VI., is brought to its climax in 
Essay VII. 

The denial or disparagement of particular doc- 
trines flows naturally out of the main argument of 
the book, and of its several parts ; and is, logically 
speaking, not the essence but, a necessary accident 
of the book. 

Accordingly, the book deals with doctrine in one 
or other of the ways following, each of which is an 
instance of the application of human knowledge and 
science as the proper measure of religious truth. 
(a) By way of rejection absolute — e.g. the Doc- 
trine of Miracles, on the ground that such 

B 4 



8 



doctrine is irreconcilable with the principles 
of human knowledge, and with the deductions 
'^Essay of modern science. 1 

(J?) By way of rejection, "sub modo" — e.g. the 

2 Essay II. Doctrine of " Justification by faith." 2 

p, 81. 

" Sub modo" — that is to say, on the ground that 
the old form of the doctrine is incompatible with an 
enlightened view of Scripture, it is concluded that 
it is necessary that it be cast in a new form to ob- 

3 Essay II. Y i ate tm ^ objection. 3 a 

pp. 80, 81, J 
83, 87. 

(c) By way of question proposed — on the ground 
that it yet awaits the decision of the educated 
intellect, in respect of any given doctrine, - 
whether there be any such doctrine or not — 

4 Essay II e '9 % tne Doctrine °f predictive Prophecy. 4 
pp.65— 67. This manner of question is extended to Reve- 
lation itself; i.e. whether there be, properly 

speaking, any such thing as Revelation or 

6 Essay V. not> 5 
p. 209 ; 

compare^ Jt appears to be impossible to understand upon 

pp. 257, what principle the Bible, as a whole, is taken to be 

258, and _ . . / , . , _ ... 

Essay VII. oi Divine Authority, and accepted as containing, a 
P- 331 - priori, the knowledge ^necessary to the religious life ; 

while, at the same time, the Divine Authority of the 

a (a) and (6) run up into one another — e.g. to modify the 
doctrine of Satisfaction by the Blood of Christ, is to reject it abso- 
lutely; inasmuch as it does not admit of modification. 



9 



several parts of which the Bible is composed is either 
directly impugned, or denied ; or the truth of each 
part is subjected to the test of human knowledge 
and science. 

There is a contradiction here, which, according to 
the simplest rules applicable to the use of the reason- 
ing faculty itself, is fatal to the argument of the 
entire book. 



SECOND HEAD OF EXAMINATION. 

General Argument of the Several Treatises as Parts 
of the Main Argument, 

Essay I. — The Education of the Woki/d. 

The general argument of this Essay — in so far as 
it is within the limits of the present inquiry — is 
concerned with the account of the process of the 
formation of character. 

(a) (1) It omits from that account certain chief 
verities of the religious life. 
(2) It excludes from that account other such 
verities. 

{b) It advances the reason and " the spirit or 
conscience " of " manhood " to a position in 
which it becomes their office to " handle 



10 



1 Notice "to freely 5,1 revealed Truth : thus initiating, and 

laying the foundation, and containing the 
germ of the teaching of the rest of the volume. 

I proceed to elucidate and to establish the two 
positions (a) (b) above affirmed. 

(a) (1) Omissioti of Verities. 

Our Blessed Lokd is introduced into the scheme 
of the Essay as "the Example " of the world. He is 
nowhere introduced into it as " the Saviour of the 
world ; " as having made Satisfaction for sin ; nor 
again, as having bestowed upon man the Gift of the 
Spirit of Grace. 

Again, although, in speaking of " the manhood of 
the world," "the Gift of the Spirit," and "the 
: P. 5. teaching of the Spirit within" 2 as "guiding the 
human race when left to itself" be mentioned ; yet 
what is meant by " the Gift of the Spirit," and to 
what extent, or whether to any extent, " the 
teaching of the Spirit within " be the law of " the 
spirit or conscience " of the individual man, are 
things nowhere taught. 

Indeed, in one place the "enlightenment" of " the 
conscience, the supreme interpreter," is represented 
not as a Gift at all, but as a possible duty : viz. 



11 



" whom (the conscience) it may be a duty to enlighten, 

but whom it can never be a duty to disobey." 1 1 P. 45. 

Another instance of omission of a chief verity — 
one which the peculiar character of the volume 
under consideration makes it especially necessary 
to notice — is, that, in insisting upon the temptations 
of man, the Essay passes by without notice the prin- 
cipal temptation, viz. the temptation to intrude 
reason into the province of faith ; to doubt and 
question God's Eevealed will ; the temptation to 
" tempt God." 2 ] St. Luke 

The Essay not only omits all notice of this St. Matt.' 
temptation, but advances another temptation into Deul^i ' 
its place. 3 16; Exod. 

1 xvii. 2 — 7; 

I call attention to the fact that the book is, 1 Cor - x - 

9 ; comp. 

throughout, a remarkable example of the prevailing Genesis iii. 
power of the particular temptation which is thus set l'st. Johu 



aside. 



(a) (2) Exclusion of Verities. 

Faith, as a Gift of God, and as a communicated 
Principle, whether by Sacrament or otherwise, is 
allowed no place in the formation of character. 

Whatever place is assigned to faith in the scheme 
of the Essay, it is only to faith, as derived from ex- 



ii. 16. 

3 Pp. 7, 
13, 14. 



12 



perience, through a reasoning process, guided and 

1 Pp. 32, governed by "the spirit or conscience." 1 

33, 34. 

And this manner of "faith" is limited to " man- 
hood ; " because, as is affirmed, it is in manhood only 
that we can apply the reasoning process to the form- 

2 P. 22. ing of "principles of faith;" 2 such faith, therefore, 

3 P. 21. finds no place in " childhood " a or in " youth." 3 

In what manner the theory of the Essay can be 
made to consist with the doctrine of Baptism, or of 
laying on of hands in Confirmation, or of Holy Com- 
munion, is not attempted to be explained, and does 
not appear. 

It remains that — faith, as a Gift of God, and as a 
communicated Principle, whether by Sacrament or 
otherwise, being thus excluded, and the faith of 
reason and experience being limited to " manhood" 
— a very large portion of those born into the world 
— even of those having Christian parents, " baptized 

4 Eom. vi. into Jesus Christ," 4 and brought up as Christians, 
^Compare live and die without any manner of faith at all ; 5 de- 
i P en di n g f° r tne no P e aR ^ tne mner strength of the 
14, soul upon "discipline" 11 and "example," with no- 
thing given them to assist and establish the power 



a Compare p. 387, Essay VII. ; " He (the child) is led by tem- 
poral promises, believing that to be good is to be happy always." 

b Thus the duty and habit of prayer in the child is put on the 
same level with his learning his lessons. — P. 5. 



13 



of good, or to counteract and enable them to over- 
come the power of bad discipline or example. 

(Z>) Supremacy of <e the Spirit or Conscience" 

The passage of the Essay, p. 5, has been already 
noted and commented upon. 

It remains to instance passages in which either — 

1. "The spiritual power within us" is identified 
with " the voice of conscience," or in which — 

2. " The spirit or conscience " of the individual 
man is spoken of as the supreme arbiter of conduct, 
(( without appeal except to himself." 

An instance of (1) is found : 

" For that in ourselves which we choose as the nearest 
analogy of God, will, of course, be looked on as the ruling 
and lasting part of our being. If He be one and spiri- 
tual, then the spiritual power within us, which proclaims 
its own unity and independence of matter by the univer- 
sality of its decrees, must be the rightful monarch of our 
lives ; but if there be Gods many and Lords many, with 
bodily appetites and animal passions, then the voice of con- 
science is but one of those wide-spread delusions which, 
some for a longer, some for a shorter period, have, before 
now, misled our race." 1 

Instances of the second are found (speaking of 
" the youth"). 



14 



1. "He cannot walk by reason and conscience alone ; 
he still needs those ' supplies to the imperfection of our 

1 P. 21. nature' which are given by the higher passions." 1 

It is distinctly implied in this passage, that 6i the 
man" can " walk by reason and conscience alone." 

2. " From the storehouse of his youthful experience the 
man begins to draw the principles of his life. The spirit 
or conscience comes to full strength and assumes the 
throne intended for him in the soul. As an accredited 
judge, invested with full powers, he sits in the tribunal 
of our inner kingdom, decides upon the past, and legis- 
lates upon the future without appeal except to himself. 
He decides not by what is beautiful, or noble, or soul- 
inspiring, but by what is right. Gradually he frames 
his code of laws, revising, adding, abrogating, as a wider 
and deeper experience gives him clearer light. He is 
the third great teacher and the last. 

"Now the education by no means ceases when the 
spirit thus begins to lead the soul ; the office of the spirit 

2 P. 31. is in fact to guide us into truth, a not to give truth." 2 

3. " But even if they could appeal to a revelation from 
heaven, they would still be under the law : for a revela- 
tion speaking from without and not from within is an 

3 P. 36. external law and not a spirit," 3 

4. " The time was come when it was fit to trust to the 
conscience as the supreme guide, and the yoke of the 
medieval discipline was shaken off by a controversy 
which, in many respects, was a repetition of that 

4 P< 42< between St. Paul and the Judaisers." 4 

a The words "guide into truth," applied by our Lord (St. John 
xvi. 1 3) to The Holy Spirit, are applied in the Essay to " the spirit 
or conscience." 



15 



The passage in p. 45 has been cited above. 

Thus the teaching of the Essay, though it recog- 
nises in one place, in general terms, and as applied 
to "the manhood of the world," "the Gift," and 
" the teaching of the Spirit," either confounds these 
throughout with the possession and the exercise of 
the natural " spirit or conscience " by the individual 
man, or asserts that such possession and exercise are 
of themselves sufficient for the guidance of man. 

Such confusion and such assertion are, alike, the 
negation of the Office of The Holy Spirit. That 
it is the assertion, and not the confusion, which is 
found in the Essay, appears from a passage in which 
the process is detailed, whereby the "leading doc- 
trines " and " the principles of conduct " of the 
Church have been " determined " and established. 

" From the very first, the Church commenced the task 

by determining her leading doctrines, and the principles 

of her conduct. These were evolved, as principles 

usually are, partly by reflection on past experience, and 

by formularising the thoughts embodied in the record of 

the Church of the Apostles, partly by perpetual collision 

with every variety of opinion." 1 1 Pp. 40, 

41. 

The process is here described as simply a human 
process. It is spoken of as a " career of dogma- 
tism ; " 2 is compared with "the hasty generalisations 2 P. 41. 



16 



1 P. 41. of early manhood ; " 1 and, in one respect, is plainly 
implied to be not "justifiable." 

The censure is a natural consequence of the 
8 P. 41. affirmations. 2 

The office of the Early Church (which is thus 
affirmed to be only a human agency) is limited in 
the Essay to the denial of " then prevailing here- 
sies." a 

Consistently with this view of the position and 
the office of the Church, a right of development is 
claimed for it from time to time : and it is intimated 
that the use of such development is to rid the 
Church of those incumbrances upon her free action, 
which are analogous to " the hasty generalisations- 
of early manhood." The right of development is 
3 P. 40. claimed here 3 nominally for the Church, but really 
for every individual member of it ; it is denied to 
" the Church," but claimed, as here, for the indivi- 
dual members of it in Essay IV. p. 187. 

Another part of the general argument of the 
Essay is the assertion that, if the revelation of our 
Lord had been — 

" Delayed till now," it " would assuredly have been 
* P. 24. hard for us to recognise His Divinity." 4 

a How an agency only human can be a judge of " heresies " is 
not explained. 



17 



Again, ibid: 

" The faculty of Faith has turned inwards, and cannot 
now accept any outer manifestations of the truth of 
God." 1 1 P. 24. 

Again : 

" Had our Lord come later," the " truth of His Divine 
nature would not have been recognised." 2 2 ^- 2 ' 3 - 

It appears to me that such statements as these 
are presumptuous and dangerous ; and this remark 
is to be extended to the passage following — 

"The conviction of the unity and spirituality of God 
was peculiar to the Jews among the pioneers of civilisa- 
tion. Greek philosophers had, no doubt, come to the 
same conclusion by dint of reason. Noble minds may 
often have been enabled to raise themselves to the same 
height in moments of generous emotion." 3 8 P 11. 

It applies also to another part of the general 
argument of the Essay, which is a disparagement of 
" the Church of the Fathers : " 

" Men are beginning to take a wider view than they 
did. Physical science, researches into history, a more 
thorough knowledge of the world they inhabit, have 
enlarged our philosophy beyond the limits which bounded 
that of the Church of the Fathers. And all these have 
an influence, whether we will or no, on our determina- 
tions of religious truth. a There are found to be more 

a " Our determinations of religious truth " have, then, still to be 
made. See below, p. 47. 

C 



18 



things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in the 
patristic theology. God's creation is a new book, to be 
read by the side of His revelation, and to be interpreted 

1 44 • as coming from Him." 1 

and to the assertion — 

" Had the Bible been drawn up in precise statements 
of faith, or detailed precepts of conduct, we should have 
had no alternative but either permanent subjection 
to an outer law, or loss of the highest instrument of self- 

2 Ibid. education." 2 

Another part of the general argument of the 
Essay is the application to the Bible of the eclectic 
principle, on the ground that the understanding and 
the use of the Bible have yet to be " determined " 
by ee investigation, philosophical, scientific, his- 

3 P. 47. torical." 3 

For the language of the Essay, it is, in more 
places than one, confused, illogical, and contradic- 
tory^ It is free, except in the first of the two 
instances just quoted (p. 44), from the painful tone 
which pervades the other Essays. b 

The design of the Essay is clear, viz. that of 
insisting upon the right to subject the decisions of 

a This remark is to be extended to the bqok generally, 
* E. g. : p. 1, " destined; " p. 4, at bottom; p. 32, "youth," " prin- 
ciples;" p. 40, confusion of infallibility of Church Catholic with that 
of particular Churches. 



19 



all questions of the religious life to cc the spirit or 
conscience " of the individual man, a as being the 
supreme arbiter from whom there is no appeal. 1 1 P. 31. 

It is in this respect that it lays the foundation of 
the teaching of the rest of the volume, and has, 
therefore, not inaptly nor inartificially, been made 
to occupy the first place in the book. 

It is not necessary to examine or comment upon 
the supposed analogy of eras of the world to the 
childhood, the youth, and the manhood of the in- 
dividual man, further than to observe, that the 
basis upon which it has been attempted to found 
such analogy being unsound throughout (as appears 
from the above account of the General Argument 
of the Essay), the analogy itself disappears. 



Essay II. — Bunsen's Biblical Researches. 

General Argument. — Review. 2 2 The Ke- 



viewer 



It is not so much the question of the Inspiration ad °pts his 

author in 

or of the Authority of the Bible which is raised in all essen- 
this Essay, as a question which is prior to both ; i n P p. 56, 

62, 70, 77, 

a I. e. the " educated " or " intellectual " man, whatever this may ^gvo^ 8 
mean. What is to become of the uneducated man is not explained, h^n, 
C 2 



20 



1 P. 62. that is to say —whether "our Bible" 1 be the Bible; 

and a yet further question still, that is to say, 
whether there has been, or be now, any book in the 
world which is properly called " The Bible," i. e, 
God's book, as distinguished from all other books, 
in that it is the infallible record of His Supernatural 
Revelation, once made, delivered by (e holy men of 
God," through Inspiration of The Spieit, com- 
mitted to the Church with its evidence of Miracle 
and Prophecy, and not to be " added to " or (< dimi- 
nished from ; " or whether what is called the Bible, 
i. e. the Book of God's Revelation, be anything 
more than a record of God's dealings with man in 
successive ages, as these dealings have been and are 
manifested in the gradual growth and development 
. of man's natural powers of judgment and conscience, 
and in his progress in scientific attainment a ; such 
record requiring, in order to its true elucidation and 
development, continual review, correction, adjust- 
ment, and interpretation, as the world advances to 
maturity. 

To establish this latter view of what is meant by 
t( The Bible " is the object of the Essay, so far as 

• P. 78: "The Bible is, before all things, the written voice of the 
congregation." 

Compare Essay I. p. 45. "The current is all one way — it evi- 
dently points to the identification of the Bible with the voice of 
conscience." 



21 



this may be gathered from its contents and course of 
reasoning. 

The argument of the Essay involves, by neces- 
sary consequence, the lowering of the Sacred History 
to the level of human histories, and the rejection 
both of Miracle and of Prophecy, " whether secular 
or Messianic," 1 in its proper — that is, in its pre- i p. 67. 
dictive — character. 

Accordingly the Miracles of the Old Testament 
are put aside in the Essay, as being liable to sus- 
picion, and requiring proof other than that upon 
which they have been received ; 2 or, rather, as in- 2 p 50> 
capable of adequate proof ; 3 and, further, as incon- 3 p. 51. 
sistent with the true course of God's Providence 

in " training mankind ; " 4 and Prophecy is reduced 4 Pp. 52, 

• 77 
to history of past or of contemporaneous facts, 

which have, some of them, found their counterpart 

in the history of our Lord Himself, or of His 

Church. 

The rationalistic process thus freely applied to 5 p - 88 - 

6 P. 88. 

the Old Testament, is no less freely applied to the 7 p - R 2. 

8 P. 80. 

New Testament ; and the Doctrines of the Fall ; 5 9 P. 83.' 
Original Sin ; 6 the Incarnation ; 7 of the Atone- g7. Pp ' 8 ° 
ment ; 8 of Redemption ; 9 Satisfaction ; 10 Propitia- „ p 0 8 g 0 
tion; 11 Justification; 12 Regeneration; 13 Salvation; 14 81 p 
Resurrection; 15 and generally the whole Doctrine 14 P. si. 

15 P. 81. 

c 3 



22 



of the Communication of Grace by Sacrament or 
otherwise, receives a new interpretation ; one con- 
sistent, indeed, with the rationalistic principle, but 
one, not only unsupported by but, contrary to Holy 
Scripture and the voice of the Church. 

The impossibility of reconciling such a method of 
treatment of the Jewish Scriptures as is found in 
this and others of these fJ Essays and Reviews," with 
reverence and faithful keeping of the Gospels and 
the other Scriptures of the New Testament, in which 
the Jewish Scriptures are cited and appealed to con- 
tinually, is left without attempt at explanation, and, 
indeed, without notice. a 



Essay III. — Study of the Evidences of 
Christianity. 

General Argument. 

The argument of this Essay is to be described as 
destructive of a principal ground of fixed belief. It 

a E.g. compare what is said about Jonah (p. 77) with our Lord's 
words about him, St. Matt. xii. 38-41, xvi. 4. 

In Essay IV. p. 201-2, the explanation is hazarded that such 
citation and appeal bave been made by our Loe.d and His Apostles, 
" without, either denying or asserting the literal truth " of what is 
cited or appealed to: and that the true account of such citation and 
appeal is probably to be found in the application of the ideological 
principle. 



23 



contends against an external evidence of Revelation, 
i. e. against Miracles ; and concludes not against 
Miracles only in the ordinary acceptation of the 
term, but against Creation itself, the great original 
Miracle. 

" The first dissociation of the spiritual from the physi- 
cal was rendered necessary by the palpable contradic- 
tions disclosed by astronomical discovery with the letter 
of Scripture. Another still wider and more material 
step has been effected by the discoveries of geology. 
More recently the antiquity of the human race, and the 
development of species, and the rejection of the idea 
of ' creation/ have caused new advances in the same 
direction. 1 1 P. 129. 

"In all these cases there is, indeed, a direct discre- 
pancy between what had been taken for revealed truth 
and certain undeniable existing monuments to the 
contrary. 

"Yet it is acknowledged under the high sanction of 

the name of Owen, 2 that ' creation' is only another name 2 British 

for our ignorance of the mode of production ; and it has 4 SS0C ;'^~ 
& r ' tion Ad- 

been the unanswered and unanswerable argument of dress, 

another reasoner that new species must have originated 1858 - 
either out of their inorganic elements, or out of pre- 
viously organised forms ; either development or spon- 
taneous generation must be true ; while a work has now 
appeared by a naturalist of the most acknowledged 
authority, Mr. Darwin's masterly volume on The Origin 
of Species by the law of £ natural selection,' — which now 
substantiates on undeniable grounds the very principle 
so long denounced by the first naturalists, — the origina- 
tion of new species by natural causes: a work which 
c 4 



24 



must soon bring about an entire revolution of opinion in 
favour of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers 

1 P. 139. of nature." 1 

\ 

Another conclusion of the argument is as 
follows : — 

" Thus, if miracles were in the estimation of a former 
age among the chief supports of Christianity, they are 
at present among the main difficulties, and hindrances to 

2 P. uo. its acceptance." 2 

The grounds of the above conclusions are that a 
Miracle is contrary to (( analogy and. experience," to 
the ({ rules of law and order," and to the (i universal 
subordination of physical causes." 

The general conclusions of the argument of the 
Essay are best stated in its own words : — 

" To conclude : an alleged miracle can only be re- 
garded in one of two ways ; — either (1) abstractedly as 
a physical event, and therefore to be investigated by 
reason and physical evidence, and referred to physical 
causes, possibly to known causes, but at all events to 
some higher cause or law if at present unknown ; it then 
ceases to be supernatural, yet still might be appealed to 
in support of religious truth, especially as referring to 
the state of knowledge and apprehensions of the parties 
addressed in past ages ; or (2) as connected with reli- 
gious doctrine, regarded in a sacred light, asserted on 
the authority of inspiration. In this case it ceases to be 
capable of investigation by reason, or to own its domi- 
nion ; it is accepted on religious grounds, and can appeal 



25 



only to the principle and influence of faith. Thus 
miraculous narratives become invested with the character 
of articles of faith, if they be accepted in a less positive 
and certain light, as requiring some suspension of judg- 
ment as to their nature and circumstances % or perhaps 
as involving more or less of the parabolic or mythic 
character ; or at any rate as received in connection with, 
and for the sake of the doctrine inculcated." 1 1 P. 142. 

The supernatural character of the Miracles of the 
Bible is thus rejected absolutely. — Upon what 
ground it is affirmed that they may " still be appealed 
to in support of religious truth," and what that " faith" 
is, which accepts " miraculous narratives " — under 
the conditions above stated — as " articles of faith," 
but rejects them as evidences of Christianity, and 
stigmatises them as " difficulties and hindrances to 
its acceptance," is not so clear. 



Essay IV. — The National Church. 

General Argument. 
The account of the general argument of this 
Essay falls under the divisions following : — 

a The words " as requiring " down to " circumstances " are not 
found in the first edition of the book. There is another instance of 
a change made without acknowledgment in Essay IV. p. 175, where 
two words have been inserted, and one omitted, in six lines ; and a 
third instance in Essay II. p. 63. 



26 



A. It discards the office of the Church as the 
interpreter of Holy Scripture, and the teacher of the 
nations. 

It does this on three grounds — 

1. That the Bible, as so interpreted, and the 

Church, as the teacher of such interpre- 
tation, have failed to do for man what 
might have been expected from them. 

2. That an enlarged knowledge of the earth 

and its inhabitants, and the general pro- 
gress of science, have made it impossible 
for (( educated" men to accept the Bible as 
It has hitherto been accepted, or to under- 
stand it as It has hitherto been understood. 

3. That the same enlarged knowledge and pro- 

gress have shown that many of the forms 
in which the Church has set forth her 
doctrines are not only ill suited to the 
present time, but are positive hindrances 
in the way of religion. 

The Essay proceeds to apply these general con- 
clusions to our own case ; and urges that English 
Christianity must begin anew; must enter upon a 
new Beforraation, and frame a new "Church, and, in 
effect, a new Bible, in order to a return to " the fluid 



27 

" state of Christian opinion in the first century after 
te Cheist. 1 



B. It draws a broad distinction between " the 
"Christian life" and "the Christian doctrine." 2 2 Pp. 1 64, 

195 5 see 

The principle of the distinction is extended further, also pp. 

427—8. 

and the worship and the morality of " heathendom " 
are brought into some close approximation with 
those of the Gospel. 3 3 P- 156. 

C. It affirms that a " National Church" 4 is not 4 P. 189. 
consistent with the use of formularies, or of forms of 
doctrine ; and, if it were not for the fact of the 
existence of the Articles, and for a special difficulty 

in respect of the doing away with them " in our 
generation," the Essay would propose that even these 
should not be retained in the National Church of 
England. Now the " National Church " of England, 
.as all " National Churches " existing hitherto, con- 
templates the acceptance by all her members, and 
provides for the teaching within her pale, of her own 
doctrines, as set out in her own formularies, and of 
none other. 

" The National Church " or " Multitudinism " of 
the Essay would admit every denomination of 
Christianity ; and possibly something more even 
than this. It is then only another name for the most 



2S 



unregulated licence of private opinion, and the most 
licentious " individualism." 

It is part of my painful duty to animadvert at this 
point upon the flagrant immorality of an argument 
which labours to show by how many processes of the 
reasoning faculty the acceptance and the use by the 
Clergy of a Church of the formularies of a " National 
Church " a may be combined with absolute disbelief 
of the doctrinal statements of such formularies, even 
when these may have been limited to the enunciation 
1 Seep. 0 f « the principles of the Doctrine of Christ." 1 

186. 



Essay V. — Mosaic Cosmogony. 

General Argument. 

The general argument of this Essav concludes of 
the Mosaic record of the Creation, that it is — 

a For the idea of a National Church see p. 173. "A national 
Church need not, historically speaking, be Christian, much less, if it 
be Christian, need it be tied down to particular forms, which have 
been prevalent at certain times in Christendom. That which is 
essential to a national Church is, that it should 'undertake to assist 
the spiritual progress of the nation and of the individuals of which 
it is composed, in their several states and stages." 



29 



" Not an authentic utterance of Divine knowledge, 
but a human utterance which it has pleased Providence 
to use in a special way for the education of mankind." 1 1 P. 253. 

It speaks of Moses as — 

" The early speculator, harassed by no scruples in 
asserting as facts what he knew in reality only as pro- 
babilities." 2 2 P. 252, 

The Essay arrives at its conclusion upon a prin- 
ciple which may be equally insisted upon as against 
all Revelation. 

That principle is, that in any and every case in 
which the deductions of human science, or the inquiry 
into facts, as ascertained by modern research, are 
found to be not in accord with the record of Reve- 
lation, what has been hitherto accepted as Revelation 
is proved thereby to be, in any and every such parti- 
cular, no Revelation but, only " a human utterance." 

Thus Revelation, by which is meant the com- 
munication from God to man of knowledge un- 
attainable by human reason, is subordinated to the 
conclusions of human reason, — by one reasoner in 
this particular, by another reasoner in that parti- 
cular, — and is only allowed in so far as it is found 
to be in accordance with those conclusions. 

The question, therefore, which is really raised in 
this Essay, and answered in the negative, being 
traced up to its principle, and followed out to its 



30 



issues, is this, — whether there be any such thing as 
" Revelation " at all. The question is stated in the 
Essay in terms, p. 209. It is stated also in Essay 
VI. pp. 257-8, as the substance of the deistical 
position. 

Compare p. 330—331. Essay VII. : 

" They seem to run up at last into a difference of 
opinion respecting Revelation itself — whether given 
beside the human faculties or through them, whether an 
interruption of the laws of nature or their perfection and 
fulfilment." 



Essay VI. — Tendencies of Religious 
Thought in England. 1688 — 1750. 

General Argument, 

This, as Essay II., is a review. The conclusion 
of its general argument is presented as the result 
of a long disquisition touching other men's thoughts 
and writings. 

The Essay states, in its concluding paragraph, the 
result of its inquiry, viz. : — 

That it has yet to be 

" endeavoured to be made out clearly on what basis Re- 
velation is supposed by it (the religious literature of the 
present day) to rest— whether on Authority, on the in- 



31 



ward Light, on Reason, on self-evidencing Scripture, or 
on the combination of the four, or some of them, and in 
what proportions." 1 1 p 2 9. 

That is to say : — 

(a) That there has not been up to the present 

time, and that there is not in the present 
time, anything which may be depended upon 
in respect of w r hat Revelation is, and what its 
claim and its scope. 

(b) That the standard, to which in all these re- 

spects the decision has yet to be brought, and 
by which its value has to be tried, is the free 
examination of " the religious literature of the 
present day as a whole." 

The second of these (b) is the necessary issue of 
the first (a). Both together are, in effect, nothing 
else than the rejection of "Revelation," as, in its 
nature, independent of "Reason," and as that in 
respect of which the permitted use of fe Reason " is 
to recognise such independency ; and the assertion 
that the educated intellect of successive ages has 
to decide upon the whole question of " Revelation," 
upon a review of " the religious literature of the 
day as a whole." 

That is to say — all that mankind has to do or to 
look forward to, is the exercise of an endless and 
helpless scepticism. 



32 



If, indeed, — as appears to be assumed throughout 
the volume, beginning with Essay I. as the foundation 
of the whole, — the world is to be taken as having 
now attained in its " manhood " to the highest stage 
of intellectual power, then the decision of the ques- 
tion above stated is not only now to be made for 
the first time, but is to be made finally. How this 
may be made to consist either with the hope of the 
Christian in past and present time, or with the claim 
of the volume in behalf of the free exercise of the 
intellectual faculty in all times, does not appear. 

There is a fallacy pervading the structure of the 
Essay, which may be noticed in this place. 

The Essay professes to give an account of (( The 
Tendencies of Religious Thought in England from 
1688 to 1750." 

Now any account of the "Religious Thought" of 
a people and of its "Tendencies" must include " The 
Thought " with its " Tendencies " not only of the 
" educated " but of the " uneducated ; " not only of 
the speculative, but of the ordinary mind; not 
only of the critical scholar, but of that large pro- 
portion of mankind who never trouble themselves 
about criticism, because it makes no part of the 
opportunities of their life ; not only of the man of 
the world, but of " the poor of this world." 



33 



But the Essay, as might have been expected 
from its having found a place in this book, treats of 
the first section only of each of the above divisions ; 
taking no account of the t( Religious Thought " 
with its " Tendencies " of the multitude of men ; 
the " Religious Thought " which accepts Revelation 
as God has given it, and which knows nothing 
of dispute and doubts about the Bible, because 
it knows nothing of the temptation to be wiser than 
God — the peculiar temptation which waits upon 
human learning. Such " Religious Thought " is 
stigmatised with its " Tendencies," Essay I. p. 47 : — 

" Even the mistakes of careful and reverent students 
are more valuable now than truth held in unthinking 
acquiescence" 

But it is, nevertheless, the inheritance of " the 
poor of this world " whom " God hath chosen." 

The " Religious Thought " of the people at large 
with its " Tendencies " was little touched, if at all, 
in the time of which the Essay speaks by the spe- 
culations and " free handling " of that time. 

And this is true, in its measure, of our own time. 
But the measure is different; and, in a principal point, 
not to our advantage. The gift of God, in granting 
to our time larger opportunities and means of know- 
ledge, carries with it its trial, under which many 

D 



34 



fail. Learning is not so deep as it was, while it is 
more diffused. The reading power and the access 
to books — and, among them, to books like the one 
before us, which unsettle the faith of many, and tend 
to confirm the faith of none — is greatly enlarged. 
The circle of the peculiar temptation which waits 
upon human learning is thus widened, and the danger 
of a temptation, in itself of a subtle and insidious 
and plausible character, is increased and multiplied. 

But as it is a fallacy to give an account of " The 
Tendencies of the Religious Thought " of a people 
in past time, as though these were necessarily iden- 
tified with " The Tendencies of the Religious 
Thought " of the few, so would it be a fallacy now. 
The faith of a people is, happily, not to be measured 
by that licence of crude speculation which its (so 
called) e; learned" and "educated " men not unfre- 
quently mistake for the proper exercise of the 
rational faculty. 



Essay VII. — Otf the Intekpketation of 

SCKIPTURE. 
General Argument. 
As Essay I. laid the foundation of the teaching of 
the entire book, so Essay VII. includes within itself 
the teaching of the 329 pages which precede it, with 



35 



the single exception of the argument which concludes 
against the possibility of a Miracle. 

There is no other part of that teaching which is 
not found in Essay VII. Nothing has been said in 
the preceding Essays of — 

(1.) The unlimited province of reason, and the 
supreme control of " the spirit or conscience " 1 of 1 Compare 
the individual man : 365. ' 

(2.) The necessity of making the record of ee Re- 
velation " conform to the conclusions of the iC edu- 
cated" intellect : a 2 2 Pp. 348- 

9, 374. 

(3.) The incredibility of the historical Scriptures : 3 3 P. 349. 

(4.) The non-fulfilment of prophecy : 4 4 P. 343. 

(5.) The non-applicability of type : 5 * Pp. 382, 

(6.) The failure of the Church hitherto in respect 
of the elucidation and application of Holy Scripture, 
and in respect of the general discharge of her office 
in the world : 6 6 P. 343. 

(7.) The inquiry which has yet to be made into 
the fact and the nature of " Revelation : " — 7 7 P. 331. 

of which the substance is not found in Essay VII. 

a This is the principle of the conclusion of Essay V., as above 
stated, viz : that the conclusions of the educated intellect are the 
proper tests of the truth of that record. 

D 2 



36 



Some further conclusions of the general argument 
of the Essay are the following : — 

1. That there is no foundation in the Gospels or 
1 P. 345. Epistles 1 for any of the higher or supernatural 

views of inspiration.* 

2. That, having regard to the fact that the Church 
has been at fault in respect of the interpretation of 
Holy Scripture for eighteen hundred and sixty years, 

a Compare Essay II. pp. 50-1 : " Questions of miraculous inter- 
ference do not turn merely upon our conceptions of physical law, 
as unbroken, or of the Divine Will, as all-pervading : but they 
include inquiries into evidence, and must abide by verdicts on the 
age of records. Nor should the distinction between poetry and prose, 
and the possibility of imagination's allying itself with affection, 
be overlooked. We cannot encourage a remorseless criticism of 
Gentile histories and escape its contagion when we approach Hebrew 
annals; nor acknowledge a Providence in Jewry without owning 
that it may have comprehended sanctities elsewhere. But the moment 
we examine fairly the religions of India and of Arabia, or even those 
of primeval Hellas and Latium, we find they appealed to the better 
side of our nature, and their essential strength lay in the elements of 
good which they contained, rather than in any Satanic corruption." 
And Essay III. p. 140 : — " But no one denies revelation in this 
sense; the philosophy of the age does not discredit the inspiration 
of Prophets and Apostles, though it may sometimes believe it in poets, 
legislators, philosophers, and others gifted with high genius." 

Essay I. appears to hold the "infallible inspiration" of the 
Apostles (p. 40) ; in this being at issue with Essay VII. But 
Essay I. goes on in the same place to deny that the fruits of such 
" infallible inspiration " have been preserved to«the Church Catholic. 
This it does by confusing between the Church Catholic and 
particular Churches. 



37 



{i.e. up to the time of the publication of this Essay), 
it is for this generation to amend and repair the fault 
of Christendom, by proceeding for the first time to 

" interpret the Bible like any other book. " l i p p , 375. 

377. 

I am unable to see that this canon of interpretation 
is modified in substance by the words that follow : 

" There are many respects in which Scripture is unlike 
any other book ; these will appear in the results of such 
an interpretation." 2 2 P. 377. 

3. That, although it be said in Holy Scripture, 3 3 2 Tim. 

iii. 16. 

" All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God." 
and 

u No Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpre- 
tation : for the Prophecy came not in old time by the will 
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved 
by The Holy Ghost ;" 4 

nevertheless, 



4 2 Pet. i. 
20, 21. 



" the question of inspiration, though in one sense impor- 
tant, is to the interpreter as though it were not important " 5 5 p - 35 L 

Compare 

and, P- 36D-2. 

" the interpretation of Scripture has nothing to do with 

any opinion respecting its origin." 6 6 P. 350. 

4. That the only hope of maintaining the credit 
and authority of the Bible is by the use of criticism. 

" Without criticism it would be impossible to reconcile 
History and Science with Revealed Religion ; they must 

D 3 



38 



remain for ever in a hostile and defiant attitude. Instead 
of being, like other records, subject to the conditions of 
knowledge which existed in an early stage of the world, 
Scripture would be regarded on the one side as the work 
of organic Inspiration, and as a lying imposition on the 
l JP.4ll. other." 1 

5. That, as 

"the thoughts of able and highly educated young 
men almost always stray towards the first principles of 
things, it is a great injury to them, and tends to raise in 
their minds a sort of incurable suspicion, to find that 
there is one book of the fruit of the knowledge of which 

2 P. 373, they are forbidden freely to taste, that is, the Bible." 2 

I believe that it is scarcely possible to set down 
words more calculated to shock and offend the re- 
ligious mind. The reference in them to Genesis ii. 
9, 16, 17 ; and iii. 1 — 13, is not to be mistaken. 

6. " Neither is there any ground for assuming design of 
any other kind in Scripture, any more than in Plato or 

3 P. 380. Homer." 3 

The 

" design of any other kind " 
intended in this place, is that of 

" any second or hidden sense in Prophet or Evangelist 

4 V. 380. different from that which appears on the surface." 4 

For the general tone and manner of the Essay, 
the thing most to be noted is the extravagance of its 
self-complacency, or rather, of its presumption, This 



39 



is specially instanced, among other things, by the 
assumption, which is interwoven with all its texture, 
not that this or that man has been at fault in eluci- 
dating and applying the "Word of God, but, that the 
Church Catholic has proved to be unequal to the task. 

Finally, the Essay supplies a memorable example 
of the thing of which it complains, 1 viz. that writings 1 P. 377. 
upon Scripture have been commonly conceived in 
the spirit of the prevailing idea of the time. A pre- 
vailing idea of the time is, according to this book, 
that of the supremacy of human intellect. 

It is in the spirit of this prevailing idea that this 
Essay has been conceived. 

Having thus examined the book under the first 
and second heads of examination; that is to say, in 
respect of — 

1. The structure, arrangement, and argument of 
the volume : 

2. The general argument of the several treatises 
contained in the volume : 

I conclude — 

That, in respect both of the main argument, and 
of the general argument of the several treatises, the 
book suggests doubts — 

D 4 



40 



1. Whether " The Bible " be the Inspired Ke- 

cord of God's dealings with man. 

2. Whether " God has taught man anything 

beyond that which man is able and ob- 
viously intended to arrive at by the use 
1 Essay Y. of his natural faculties." 1 

p. 209. 

That is to say, whether there be any such thing 
as Revelation. 



I proceed to the Third Head of Examination, i. e. 
whether specific passages be found in 
the Book, being parts of the argument 
of the several Treatises, w^hich deny, 
contradict, or disparage the inspiration 
and Authority of, or are, generally, 
contrary to, holy scripture, and which 
are, in other respects, also, contrary 
to the Doctrines of the Church of 
England, as these have been set forth 
in her Book of Common Prayer, and Ad- 
ministration of the Sacraments, and in 
her Articles. 



41 



THIED HEAD OF EXAMINATION. 
Holy Scripture speaks of Inspiration as follows : — 

2 S. Tim. iii. 16 : — 

" All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God." 

2 S. Peter 5. 20, 21: — 

"No Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private 
interpretation. For the Prophecy came not in old time 
by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by The Holy Ghost." 

A. — Passages which deny, contradict, or disparage 
the Inspiration of and are, generally, contrary to, 
Holy Scripture, 

Essay I. p. 47 : — ■ 

" The determination of the limits of what we mean by 
its inspiration." 

Essay II. pp. 56, 57 : — 

"In the half ideal half traditional notices of the 
beginnings of our race, compiled in Genesis, we are bid 
notice the combination of documents, and the recurrence 
of barely consistent genealogies. As the man Adam 
begets Cain, the man Enos begets Cainan. Jared and 
Irad, Methuselah and Methusael, are similarly compared. 
Seth, like El, is an old deity's appellation, and Man was 
the son of Seth in one record, as Adam was the son of 
God in the other. One could wish the puzzling circum- 



42 



stance, that the etymology of some of the earlier names 
seems strained to suit the present form of the narrative, 
had been explained. That our author would not shrink 
from noticing this, is shown by the firmness with which 
he relegates the long lives of the first patriarchs to the 
domain of legend, or of symbolical cycle." 

Essay II. p. 61 : — 

" When the fierce ritual of Syria, with the awe of a 
Divine voice, bade Abraham slay his son, he did not 
reflect that he had no perfect theory of the absolute to 
justify him in departing from traditional revelation, but 
trusted that the Father, whose voice from heaven he 
heard at heart, was better pleased with mercy than with 
sacrifice ; and his trust was his righteousness. Its seed 
was sown from heaven, but it grew in the soil of an 
honest and good heart. So in each case we trace prin- 
ciples of reason and right, to which our heart per- 
petually responds, and our response to which is a truer 
sign of faith than such deference to a supposed external 
authority as would quench these principles themselves." 

Essay II. p. 63 : — 

"He rightly rejects the perversions which make the 
cursing Psalms evangelically inspired." 

Essay II. pp. 70, 71: — 

" Why he should add to his moral and metaphysical 
basis of prophecy, a notion of foresight by vision of 
particulars, or a kind of clairvoyance, though he admits 
it to be a natural gift, consistent with fallibility, is not 
so easy to explain. One would wish he might have 
intended only the power of seeing the ideal in the actual, 



43 



or of tracing the Divine Government in the movements 
of men. He seems to mean more than presentiment or 
sagacity ; and this element in his system requires 
proof." 

Essay II. pp. 76, 77 : — 

e< That the book contains no predictions, except by 
analogy and type, can hardly be gainsaid." 

Essay II. p. 77 : — 

" It provokes a smile on serious topics to observe the 
zeal with which our critic vindicates the personality of 
Jonah, and the originality of his hymn (the latter being 
generally thought doubtful), while he proceeds to explain 
that the narrative of our book, in which the hymn is 
imbedded, contains a late legend, founded on miscon- 
ception. One can imagine the cheers which the opening 
of such an essay might evoke in some of our own circles, 
changing into indignation as the distinguished foreigner 
developed his views. After this he might speak more 
gently of mythical theories." 

Essay II. p. 84, 85 : — 

" The second of the Petrine Epistles, having alike 
external and internal evidence against its genuineness, 
is necessarily surrendered as a whole ; and our critic's 
good faith in this respect is more certain than the inge- 
nuity with which he reconstructs a part of it. The 
second chapter may not improbably be a quotation ; but 
its quoter, and the author of the rest of the epistle, 
need not therefore have been St. Peter." 

Essay III. p. 129 : — 

" The first dissociation of the spiritual from the phy- 



44 



sical was rendered necessary by the palpable contradic- 
tions disclosed by astronomical discovery with the letter 
of Scripture. Another still wider and more material 
step has been effected by the discoveries of geology. 
More recently the antiquity of the human race, and the 
development of species, and the rejection of the idea of 
' creation,' have caused new advances in the same di- 
rection. 

"In all these cases there is, indeed, a direct dis- 
crepancy between what had been taken for revealed 
truth and certain undeniable existing monuments to the 
contrary." 

Essay III. p. 139 : — 

" Yet it is now acknowledged, under the high sanction 
of the name of Owen, that 'creation' is only another 
name for our ignorance of the mode of production." 

Essay IV. p. 17^ (note) : — 

" Previous to the time of the divided kingdom, the 
Jewish history presents little which is thoroughly reli- 
able." 

Essay IY. p. 175: — 

" It has been matter of great boast within the Church 
of England, in common with other Protestant Churches, 
that it is founded upon the * Word of God,' a phrase 
which begs many a question when applied collectively to 
the books of the Old and New Testaments." 

Essay IY. pp. 176, 177: — 

"Under the terms of the sixth Article one may accept 
literally, or allegorically, or as parable, or poetry, or 
legend, the story of a serpent tempter, of an ass speaking 
with man's voice, of an arresting of the earth's motion, 



45 



of a reversal of its motion, of waters standing in a solid 
heap, of witches, and a variety of apparitions. So, 
under the terms of the sixth Article, every one is free 
in judgment as to the primeval institution of the Sab- 
bath, the universality of the deluge, the confusion of 
tongues, the corporeal taking up of Elijah into heaven, 
the nature of angels, the reality of demoniacal possession, 
the personality of Satan, and the miraculous particu- 
lars of many events. So the dates and authorship of 
the several books received as canonical are not deter- 
mined by any authority, nor their relative value and 
importance." 

Essay IV. p. 185 : — 

" Much less can historical questions not even hinted at 
in the Articles be excluded from free discussion — such 
as concern the dates and composition of the several 
books, the compilation of the Pentateuch, the introduction 
of Daniel into the Jewish canon, and the like with some 
books of the New Testament — the date and authorship, 
for instance, of the fourth Gospel." 

Essay IV. p. 161: — 

" Our Lord's discourses have almost all of them a 
direct moral bearing. This character of His words is 
certainly more obvious in the three first Gospels than in 
the fourth ; and the remarkable unison of those Gospels, 
when they recite the Lord's words, notwithstanding 
their discrepancies in some matters of fact, compels us 
to think, that they embody more exact traditions of what 
He actually said than the fourth does." a 

a " The fourth Gospel has always heen supposed to have been 
written with a controversial purpose, and not to have been composed 
till from sixty to seventy years after the events which it undertakes to 



46 



Essay IV. pp. 201-2 : — 

" And many narratives of marvels and catastrophes in 
the Old Testament are referred to in the New, as em- 
blems, without either denying ©r asserting their literal 
truth — such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 
by fire from heaven, and the Noachian deluge. And 
especially if we bear in mind the existence of such a 
school as that which produced Philo, or even the author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we must think it would 
be wrong to lay down, that whenever the New Testament 
writers refer to Old Testament histories, they imply of 
necessity that the historic truth was the first to them. 
For their purposes it was often wholly in the background, 
and the history, valuable only in its spiritual application. 
The same may take place with ourselves, and history and 
tradition be employed emblematically, without, on that 
account, being regarded as untrue. We do not apply 
the term ' untrue ' to parable, fable, or proverb, although 
their words correspond with ideas, not with material 

narrate ; some critics, indeed, think it was not of a date anterior to 
the year 140, and that it presupposes opinions of a Valentinian 
character, or even Montanist, which would make it later still. At 
any rate it cannot, by external evidence, be attached to the person 
of S. John as its author, in the sense wherein moderns understand 
the word author: that is, there is no proof that S. John gives his 
voucher as an eye and ear witness of all which is related in it,. 
Many persons shrink from a bona fide examination of the ' Gospel 
question,' because they imagine, that unless the four Gospels are re- 
ceived as perfectly genuine and authentic — that is, entirely the com- 
position of the persons whose names they bear — and without any 
admixture of legendary matter or embellishment in their narratives, 
the only alternative is to suppose a fraudulent design in those who 
did compose them. This is a supposition from which. common sense, 
and the moral instinct, alike revolt ; but it is happily not an only 
alternative." 



47 



facts ; as little should we do so, when narratives have 
been the spontaneous product of true ideas, and are ca- 
pable of reproducing them." 

Essay V. p. 222 (note): — 

"It is in the second narrative of creation that the 
formation of a single man out of the dust of the earth, is 
described, and the omission to create a female at the 
same time, is stated to have been repaired by the subse- 
quent formation of one from the side of the man." 

Essay V. pp. 252-3 : — 

"But if we regard it as the speculation of some He- 
brew Descartes or Newton, promulgated in all good faith 
as the best and most probable account that could be then 
given of God's universe, it resumes the dignity and value 
of which the writers in question have done their utmost 
to deprive it. It has been sometimes felt as a difficulty 
to taking this view of the case, that the writer asserts so 
solemnly and unhesitatingly that for which he must have 
known that he had no authority. But this arises only from 
our modern habits of thought, and from the modesty of 
assertion which the spirit of true science has taught us. 
Mankind has learnt caution through repeated slips in the 
process of tracing out the truth. 

" The early speculator was harassed by no such scru- 
ples, and asserted as facts what he knew in reality only 
as probabilities. But we are not on that account to 
doubt his perfect good faith, nor need we attribute to 
him wilful misrepresentation, or consciousness of assert- 
ing that which he knew not to be true. He had seized 
one great truth, in which, indeed, he anticipated the 
highest revelation of modern inquiry — namely, the unity 



48 



of the design of the world, and its subordination to one 
sole Maker and Lawgiver. With regard to details, ob- 
servation failed him. He knew little of the earth's sur- 
face, or of its shape and place in the universe ; the infinite 
varieties of organised existences which people it, the 
distinct floras and faunas of its different continents, were 
unknown to him. But he saw that all which lay within 
his observation had been formed for the benefit and ser- 
vice of man, and the goodness of the Creator to his crea- 
tures was the thought predominant in his mind. Man's 
closer relation to his Maker is indicated by the repre- 
sentation that he was formed last of all creatures, and in 
the visible likeness of God. For ages, this simple view 
of creation satisfied the wants of man, and formed a 
sufficient basis of theological teaching, and if modern 
research now shows it to be physically untenable, our 
respect for the narrative which has played so important 
a part in the culture of our race need be in nowise dimi- 
nished. No one contends that it can be used as a basis 
of astronomical or geological teaching, and those who 
profess to see in it an accordance with facts, only do this 
sub modo, and by processes which despoil it of its con- 
sistency and grandeur, both of which may be preserved 
if we recognise in it, not an authentic utterance of Divine 
knowledge, but a human utterance, which it has pleased 
Providence to use in a special way for the education of 
mankind." 

Essay VI. p. 328 : — 

" In this way we should be forced back to the old 
orthodox doctrine of the chronic impotence of reason, 
superinduced upon it by the Fall ; a doctrine which the 
reigning orthodoxy had tacitly renounced." 



49 



Essay VII. pp. 342-3 : — 

" And thus many principles have imperceptibly grown 
tip which have overridden facts. No one would interpret 
Scripture, as many do, but for certain previous supposi- 
tions with which we come to the perusal of it. ' There 
can be no error in the Word of God,' therefore the dis- 
crepancies in the books of Kings and Chronicles are only 
apparent, or may be attributed to differences in the copies ; 
— c It is a thousand times more likely that the interpreter 
should err than the inspired writer.' For a like reason 
the failure of a prophecy is never admitted, in spite of 
Scripture and of history (Jer. xxxvi. 30 ; Isai. xxiii. ; 
Amos vii. 10-17); the mention of a name later than the 
supposed age of the prophet is not allowed, as in other 
writings, to be taken in evidence of the date." (Isaiah 
xlv. 1.) 

Essay VII. pp. 345-6 : — 

" The word inspiration has received more numerous 
gradations and distinctions of meaning than perhaps any 
other in the whole of theology. There is an inspiration 
of superintendence and an inspiration of suggestion : an 
inspiration which would have been consistent with the 
Apostle or Evangelist falling into error, and an inspira- 
tion which would have prevented him from erring; verbal 
organic inspiration by which the inspired person is the 
passive utterer of a Divine Word, and an inspiration 
which acts through the character of the sacred writer ; 
there is an inspiration which absolutely communicates 
the fact to be revealed or statement to be made, and an 
inspiration which does not supersede the ordinary know- 
ledge of human events ; there is an inspiration which 
demands infallibility in matters of doctrine, but allows 

E 



50 



for mistakes in fact. Lastly, there is a view of inspiration 
which recognises only its supernatural and prophetic 
character, and a view of inspiration which regards the 
Apostles and Evangelists as equally inspired in their 
writings and in their lives, and in both receiving the guid- 
ance of the Spirit of Truth in a manner not different in 
kind but only in degree from ordinary Christians. Many 
of these explanations lose sight of the original meaning 
and derivation of the word ; some of them are framed 
with the view of meeting difficulties ; all perhaps err in 
attempting to define what, though real, is incapable of 
being defined in an exact manner. Nor for any of the 
higher or supernatural views of inspiration is there any 
foundation in the Gospels or Epistles. There is no ap- 
pearance in their writings that the Evangelists or Apos- 
tles had any inward gift, or were subject to any power 
external to them different from that of preaching or 
teaching which they daily exercised ; nor do they any- 
where lead us to suppose that they were free from error 
or infirmity. St. Paul writes like a Christian teacher, 
' exhibiting all the emotions and vicissitudes of human 
feeling, speaking, indeed, with authority, but hesitating 
in difficult cases, and more than once correcting himself, 
corrected, too, by the course of events in his expectation 
of the coming of Christ. The Evangelist ' who saw it, 
bare record, and his record is true : and he knoweth that 
he saith true ' (John xix. 35). Another Evangelist does 
not profess to be an original narrator, but only ' to set 
forth in order a declaration of what eye-witnesses had 
delivered,' like many others whose writings have not 
been preserved to us (Luke i. 1, 2). And the result is 
in accordance with the simple profession and style in 
which they describe themselves ; there is no appearance, 



51 



that is to say, of insincerity or want of faith ; but neither 
is there perfect accuracy or agreement." 

Essay VII. p. 349 : — 

" It is true that there is a class of scientific facts with 
which popular opinions on theology often conflict, and 
which do not seem to conform in all respects to the 
severer conditions of inductive science : such especially 
are the facts relating to the formation of the earth and 
the beginnings of the human race. But it is not worth 
while to fight on this debatable ground a losing battle 
in the hope that a generation will pass away before we 
sound a last retreat. Almost all intelligent persons are 
agreed that the earth has existed for myriads of ages ; 
the best informed are of opinion that the history of 
nations extends back some thousand years before the 
Mosaic chronology; recent discoveries in geology may 
perhaps open a further vista of existence for the human 
species, while it is possible, and may one day be known, 
that mankind spread not from one but from many centres 
over the globe ; or, as others say, that the supply of 
links which are at present wanting in the chain of 
animal life may lead to new conclusions respecting the 
origin of man." 

Essay VII. p. 418: — 

" First, it may be observed, that a change in some of 
the prevailing modes of interpretation is not so much a 
matter of expediency as of necessity. The original 
meaning of Scripture is beginning to be clearly under- 
stood. But the apprehension of the original meaning- 
is inconsistent with the reception of a typical or con- 
ventional one. The time will come when educated men 
will be no more able to believe that the words, ' Out 

E 2 



52 



of Egypt have I called my son' (Mattli. ii. 15; Hosea 
xi. 1), were intended by the prophet to refer to the 
return of Joseph and Mary from Egypt, than they are 
now able to believe the Roman Catholic explanation 
of Gen. iii. 15, 'Ipsa conteret caput tuum.' They will 
no more think that the first chapters of Genesis relate 
the same tale which Geology and Ethnology unfold than 
they now think the meaning of Joshua x. 12, 13, to be 
in accordance with Galileo's discovery." 

Essay VII. p. 419 : — 

" Whether the habit of mind Avhich has been formed 
in classical studies will not go on to Scripture ; whether 
Scripture can be made an exception to other ancient 
writings, now that the nature of both is more under- 
stood ; whether in the fuller light of history and science 
the views of the last century will hold out — these are 
questions respecting which the course of religious- 
opinion in the past does not afford the means of truly 
judging. 

For the authority of Holy Scripture, I cite the 
texts following : — 

" Ye shall not add unto the word which I command 
you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may 
keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I 
command you." — Deut. iv. 2. 

" What thing soever I command you, observe to do 
it : thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." — 
Deut. xii. 32. 

" Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, 
and thou be found a liar." — Prov. xxx. -6. 

" For I testify unto every man that heareth the words 
of the prophecy of this book If any man shall add unto 



53 



these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that 
are written in this book : And if any man shall take 
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out 
of the holy city, and from the things which are written 
in this book." — Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 



B. — Passages which deny, contradict, or disparage the 
Authority of Holy Scripture. 

Essay I. p. 44-5 : — 

" In learning this new lesson, Christendom needed a 
firm spot on which she might stand, and has found it in 
the Bible. Had the Bible been drawn up in precise 
statements of faith, or detailed precepts of conduct, we 
should have had no alternative but either permanent 
subjection to an outer law, or loss of the highest instru- 
ment of self-education. But the Bible, from its very 
form, is exactly adapted to our present want. It is a 
history ; even the doctrinal parts of it are cast in a 
historical form, and are best studied by considering them 
as records of the time at which they were written, and as 
conveying to us the highest and greatest religious life of 
that time. Hence we use the Bible — some consciously, 
some unconsciously — not to override, but to evoke the 
voice of conscience. When conscience and the Bible 
appear to differ, the pious Christian immediately con- 
cludes that he has not really understood the Bible. 
Hence, too, while the interpretation of the Bible varies 
slightly from age to age, it varies always in one direction. 
The schoolmen found purgatory in it. Later students 
found enough to condemn Galileo. Not long ago it 

e 3 



54 



would have been held to condemn geology, and there are 
still many who so interpret it. The current is all one 
way — it evidently points to the identification of the 
Bible with the voice of conscience. The Bible, in fact, 
is hindered by its form from exercising a despotism over 
the human spirit ; if it could do that, it would become 
an outer law at once ; but its form is so admirably 
adapted to our need, that it wins from us all the rever- 
ence of a supreme authority, and yet imposes on us no 
yoke of subjection. This it does by virtue of the prin- 
ciple of private judgment, which puts conscience between 
us and the Bible, making conscience the supreme inter- 
preter, whom it may be a duty to enlighten, but whom 
it can never be a duty to disobey." 

Essay I. p. 47 : — 

"Even the perverted use of the Bible has therefore 
not been without certain great advantages. And mean- 
while how utterly impossible it would be in the manhood 
of the world to imagine any other instructor of mankind. 
And for that reason, every day makes it more and more 
evident that the thorough study of the Bible, the inves- 
tigation of what it teaches and what it does not teach, 
the determination of the limits of what we mean by its 
inspiration, the determination of the degree of authority 
to be ascribed to the different books, if any degrees are 
to be admitted, must take the lead of all other studies." 

Essay IV. p. 151:— . 

" This is rather owing to a spontaneous recoil, on the 
part of large numbers of the more acute of our popula- 
tion, from some of the doctrines which are to be heard 
at church and chapel ; to a distrust of the old arguments 
for, or proofs of, a miraculous Revelation ; and to a mis- 



55 



giving as to the authority, or extent of the authority, of 
the Scriptures." 

Essay VII. p. 362 : — 

" Times have altered, we say, since these denunciations 
were uttered ; what appeared to the Prophet or Apostle 
a violation of the appointment of Providence has now 
become a part of it." 

Essay VII. p. 366-7 : — 

" Nor indeed is it easy to say what is the meaning of 
( proving a doctrine from Scripture.' For when we 
demand logical equivalents and similarity of circum- 
stances, when we balance adverse statements, St. James 
and St. Paul, the New Testament with the Old, it will 
be hard to demonstrate from Scripture any complex 
system either of doctrine or practice. The Bible is not 
a book of statutes in which words have been chosen to 
cover the multitude of cases, but in the greater portion 
of it, especially the Gospels and Epistles, ' like a man 
talking to his friend.' Nay, more, it is a book written 
in the East, which is in some degree liable to be mis- 
understood, because it speaks the ' language and has the 
feeling of Eastern lands. Nor can we readily determine 
in explaining the words of our Lord or of St. Paul, how 
much (even of some of the passages just quoted) is to be 
attributed to Oriental modes of speech. Expressions 
which would be regarded as rhetorical exaggerations in 
the Western world are the natural vehicles of thought to 
an Eastern people. Plow great then must be the con- 
fusion where an attempt is made to draw out these 
Oriental modes with the severity of a philosophical or 
legal argument ! Is it not such a use of the words of 
Christ which He himself rebukes, when He says, ' It is 
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing ? ' " 



56 



C. — Miracles. 

Essay III. p. 140 : — 

" Thus, if miracles were in the estimation of a former 
age among the chief supports of Christianity, they are at 
present among the main difficulties and hindrances to its 
acceptance." 

Essay III. p. 141-2 : — 

"Testimony, after all, is but a second-hand assurance; 
— it is but a blind guide ; testimony can avail nothing 
against reason. The essential question of miracles 
stands quite apart from any consideration of testimony ; 
the question would remain the same, if we had the evi- 
dence of our own senses to an alleged miracle, that is, to 
an extraordinary or inexplicable fact. It is not the mere 
fact, but the cause or explanation of it, which is the point 
at issue. 

" The case, indeed, of the antecedent argument of mi- 
racles is very clear, however little some are inclined to 
perceive it. In nature and from nature, by science and 
by reason, we neither have nor can possibly have any 
evidence of a Deity working miracles; — for that, we 
must go out of nature and beyond science. If we could 
have any such evidence from nature, it could only prove 
extraordinary natural effects, which would not be mi- 
racles in the old theological sense, as isolated, unrelated, 
and uncaused ; whereas no physical fact can be conceived 
as unique, or without analogy and relation to others, and 
to the whole system of natural causes." 



57 



D. — Predictive Propliecy. 

Essay II. pp. 69-71 : — 

" When so vast an induction on the destructive side 
has been gone through, it avails little that some passages 
may be doubtful, one perhaps in Zechariah, and one in 
Isaiah, capable of being made directly Messianic, and a 
chapter possibly in Deuteronomy foreshadowing the final 
fall of Jerusalem. Even these few cases, the remnant of 
so much confident rhetoric, tend to melt, if they are not 
already melted, in the crucible of searching inquiry. If 
our German had ignored all that the masters of philology 
have proved on these subjects, his countrymen would 
have raised a storm of ridicule, at which he must have 
drowned himself in the Neckar. 

" Great then is Baron Bunsen's merit, in accepting 
frankly the belief of scholars, and yet not despairing of 
Hebrew prophecy as a witness to the kingdom of God. 
The way of doing so left open to him, was to show, per- 
vading the Prophets, those deep truths which lie at the 
heart of Christianity, and to trace the growth of such 
ideas, the belief in a righteous God, and the nearness of 
man to God, the power of prayer, and the victory of self- 
sacrificing patience, ever expanding in men's hearts, 
until the fulness of time came, and the ideal of the Divine 
thought was fulfilled in the Son of Man. Such accord- 
ingly is the course our author pursues, not with the 
critical finish of Ewald, but with large moral grasp. 
Why he should add to his moral and metaphysical 
basis of prophecy, a notion of foresight by vision of 
particulars, or a kind of clairvoyance, though he admits 
it to be a natural gift, consistent with fallibility, is not so 
easy to explain. One would wish he might have in- 



58 



tended only the power of seeing the ideal in the actual, 
or of tracing the Divine Government in the movements 
of men. He seems to mean more than presentiment or 
sagacity ; and this element in his system requires proof." 

E. Realities of Holy Scripture. 

Essay IV. p. 199-201: — 

" It does not seem to be contradicted, that when 
Church formularies adopt the words of Scripture, these 
must have the same meaning, and be subject to the same 
questions, in the formularies, as in the Scripture. And 
we may go somewhat farther and say, that the historical 
parts of the Bible, when referred to or pre-supposed in 
the formularies, have the same value in them, which they 
have in their original seat ; and this value may consist, 
rather in their significance, in the ideas which they 
awaken, than in the scenes themselves which they depict. 
And as Churchmen, or as Christians, we may vary as 
to this value in particulars — that is, as to the extent of 
the verbal accuracy of a history, or of its spiritual signi- 
ficance, Avithout breaking with our communion, or deny- 
ing our sacred name. These varieties will be determined 
partly by the peculiarities of men's mental constitution, 
partly by the nature of their education, circumstances, 
and special studies. And neither should the idealist 
condemn the literalist, nor the literalist assume the right 
of excommunicating the idealist. They are really fed 
with the same truths ; the literalist unconsciously, the 
idealist with reflection. Neither can justly say of the 
other that he undervalues the Sacred Writings, or that 
he holds them as inspired less properly than himself. 
" The application of ideology to the interpretation of 



59 



Scripture, to the doctrines of Christianity, to the formu- 
laries of the Church, may undoubtedly be carried to an 
excess — may be pushed so far as to leave in the sacred 
records no historical residue whatever. On the other 
side, there is the excess of a dull and unpainstaking 
acquiescence, satisfied with accepting in an unquestioning 
spirit, and as if they were literally facts, all particulars 
of a wonderful history, because in some sense it is from 
God. Between these extremes lie infinite degrees of 
rational and irrational interpretation. 

" It will be observed that the ideal method is applicable 
in two ways ; both to giving account of the origin of 
parts of Scripture, and also in explanation of Scripture. 
It is thus either critical or exegeticai. An example of 
the critical ideology carried to excess is that of Strauss, 
which resolves into an ideal the whole of the historical 
and doctrinal person of Jesus ; so again, much of the 
allegorising of Philo and Origenis an exegeticai ideology, 
exaggerated and wild. But it by no means follows, 
because Strauss has substituted a mere shadow for the 
Jesus of the Evangelists, and has frequently descended to 
a minute captiousness in details, that there are not traits in 
the scriptural person of Jesus, which are better explained 
by referring them to an ideal than an historical origin : 
and without falling into fanciful exegetics, there are 
parts of Scripture more usefully applied ideologically than 
in any other manner — as, for instance, the history of the 
temptation of Jesus by Satan, and accounts of demonia- 
cal possessions. And liberty must be left to all as to the 
extent in which they apply the principle, for there is no 
authority through the expressed determination of the 
Church, nor of any other kind, which can define the 
limits within which it may be reasonably exercised." 



60 



Essay IY. pp. 201-203 : — 

"And many narratives of marvels and catastrophes 
in the Old Testament are referred to in the New, as 
emblems, without either denying or asserting their 
literal truth — such as the destruction of Sodom and 
Gomorrah by fire from heaven, and the Noachian deluge. 
And especially if we bear in mind the existence of such 
a school as that which produced Philo, or even the 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we must think 
it would be wrong to lay down, that whenever the New 
Testament writers refer to Old Testament histories, 
they imply of necessity that the historic truth was the 
first to them. For their purposes it was often wholly in 
the background, and the history, valuable only in its 
spiritual application. The same may take place with 
ourselves, and history and tradition be employed emblem- 
atically, without, on that account, being regarded as 
untrue. We do not apply the term 'untrue' to parable, 
fable, or proverb, although their words correspond with 
ideas, not with material facts ; as little should we do so, 
when narratives have been the spontaneous product of 
true ideas, and are capable of reproducing them. 

" The ideologian is evidently in possession of a prin- 
ciple which will enable him to stand in charitable re- 
lation to persons of very different opinions from his own, 
and of very different opinions mutually. And if he 
has perceived to how great extent the history of the 
origin itself of Christianity rests ultimately upon pro- 
bable evidence, his principle will relieve him from many 
difficulties which might otherwise be very disturbing. 
For relations which may repose on doubtful grounds as 
matter of history, and, as history, be incapable of being 
ascertained or verified, may yet be equally suggestive of 



61 



true ideas with facts absolutely certain. The spiritual 
significance is the same, of the transfiguration, of opening 
blind eyes, of causing the tongue of the stammerer to speak 
plainly, of feeding multitudes with bread in the wilder- 
ness, of cleansing leprosy, whatever links may be deficient 
in the traditional record of particular events. Or, let us 
suppose one to be uncertain, whether our Lord were born 
of the house and lineage of David, or of the tribe of Levi, 
and even to be driven to conclude that the genealogies 
of Him have little historic value ; nevertheless, in idea, 
Jesus is both Son of David and Son of Aaron, both Prince 
of Peace and High Priest of our profession ; as He is, 
under another idea, though not literally, i without 
father and without mother.' And He is none the less 
Son of David, Priest Aaronical, or Royal Priest Melchi- 
zedecan, in idea and spiritually, even if it be unproved 
whether He were any of them in historic fact. In like 
manner it need not trouble us, if, in consistency, we 
should have to suppose both an ideal origin and to apply 
an ideal meaning to the birth in the city of David, and to 
other circumstances of the infancy. So, again, the in- 
carnification of the divine Immanuel remains, although 
the angelic appearances which herald it in the narratives 
of the Evangelists may be of ideal origin according to 
the conceptions of former days. The ideologian may 
sometimes be thought sceptical, and be sceptical or 
doubtful, as to the historical value of related facts; but 
the historical value is not always to him the most impor- 
tant ; frequently it is quite secondary. And, conse- 
quently, discrepancies in narratives, scientific difficulties, 
defects in evidence, do not disturb him as they do the 
liter alist." 



62 



Essay VII. p. 423 : — 

" Is it a mere chimera that the different sections of 
Christendom may meet on the common ground of the 
New Testament ? Or that the individual may be urged 
by the vacancy and unprofitableness of old traditions 
to make the Gospel his own — a life of Christ in the 
soul, instead of a theory of Christ which is in a book 
or written down ?" 

1 Article F. — Divinity of Christ. 1 

II. 

Essay VII. p. 352 : — 

"An English commentator who, with Lachman and 
Teschendorf, supported also by the authority of Erasmus, 
ventures to alter the punctuation of the doxology in 
Romans ix. 5 ('Who is over all God blessed for ever') 
hardly escapes the charge of heresy." a 

8 Article ^' — Redemption. 2 

XL 

Essay VII. p. 361:-— 

"Lastly, the justice of God 'who rewardeth every 
man according to his works,' and the Christian scheme 
of redemption has been staked on two figurative expres- 
sions of St. Paul to which there is no parallel in any other 
part of Scripture (1 Corinthians xv. 22 ; ' For as in Adam 
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,' and the 
corresponding passage in Romans v. 12) ; notwithstand- 
ing the declaration of the Old Testament as also of the 

a See Locke's Paraphrase of Rom. ix. 5. 



63 



New, 4 Every soul shall bear its own iniquity,' and 
* neither a this man sinned nor his parents.' " 

H. — Satisfaction for Sin. 1 i Article 

XI. 

Essay II. p. 80: — 

" Why may not justification by faith have meant the 
peace of mind, or sense of Divine approval, which comes 
of trust in a righteous God, rather than a fiction of merit 
by transfer ?" 

Essay II. p. 87 : — 

" Salvation from evil through sharing the Saviour's 
spirit, was shifted into a notion of purchase from God 
through the price of His bodily pangs. The deep drama 
of heart and mind became externalised into a com- 
mercial transfer, and this effected by a form of ritual." 

I. — Personality of the Holy Ghost. 2 
Essay VII. p. 359 : — 

" 4, the Personality of the Holy Spirit." 

Ibid. p. 360 : — 

" 4. In the fourth example the words used are mys- 
terious (John xiv. 26; xvi. 15), and seem to come out of 
the depths of a divine consciousness ; they have sometimes, 
however, received a more exact meaning than they could 
truly bear ; what is spoken in a figure is construed with 
the severity of a logical statement, while passages of an 
opposite tenor are overlooked or set aside." 



2 Article 
V. Atha- 
rasian 
Creed. 



a Sic in orig. 



64 



' Articles K. — The Fall. 1 

IX. X. 

Essay II. p. 88 : — 

" The fall of Adam represents with him ideally the 
circumscription of our spirits in limits of flesh and time, 
and practically the selfish nature with which we fall from 
the likeness of God, which should be fulfilled in man." 

Essay IV. p. 154: — 

" First, if our traditions tell us, that they are involved 
in the curse and perdition of Adam, and may justly be 
punished hereafter individually for his transgression, not 
having been extricated from it by saving faith, we are 
disposed to think, that our traditions cannot herein fairly 
declare to us the words and inferences from Scripture ; 
but if on examination it should turn out that they have, 
we must say, that the authors of the Scriptural books 
have, in those matters, represented to us their own in- 
adequate conceptions, and not the mind of the Spirit of 
God ; for we must conclude with the Apostle, ' Yea, let 
God be true and every man a liar." 

Essay VI. p. 328 : — 

" In this way we should be forced back to the old 
orthodox doctrine of the chronic impotence of reason, 
superinduced upon it by the Fall ; a doctrine which tht> 
reigning orthodoxy had tacitly renounced." 



2 Article L« — Original Sin. 2 

IX. 

Essay II. p. 86 : — 

" Holy baptism was at first preceded by a vow, in 



65 



which the young soldier expressed his consciousness of 
spiritual truth ; but when it became twisted into a false 
analogy with circumcision, the rite degenerated into a 
magical form, and the Augustinian notion of a curse 
inherited by infants was developed in connection 
with it." 

Essay II. p. 88 : — 

" He evidently could not state Original Sin in so ex- 
aggerated a form as to make the design of God altered 
by the first agents in His creation, or to destroy the 
notion of moral choice and the foundation of ethics." 

M. — Descent from Adam, 1 1 Article 

IX. 

Essay III. p. 139: — 

" Yet it is now acknowledged under the high sanction 
of the name of Owen, that 'creation' is only another 
name for our ignorance of the mode of production ; and 
it has been the unanswered and unanswerable argument 
of another reasoner that new species must have originated 
either out of their inorganic elements, or out of previously 
organised forms; either development or spontaneous 
generation must be true : while a work has now ap- 
peared by a naturalist of the most acknowledged autho- 
rity, — Mr. Darwin's masterly volume on The Origin of 
Species by the law of ' natural selection,' — which now 
substantiates on undeniable grounds the very principle 
so long denounced by the first naturalists, — the origina- 
tion of neiv species by natural causes: a work which 
must soon bring about an entire revolution of opinion in 
favour of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers 
of nature." 

F 



66 



Essay IV. p. 201-2 : — 

" Thus some may consider the descent of all mankind 
from Adam and Eve as an undoubted historical fact ; 
others may rather perceive in that relation a form oi 
narrative, into which in early ages tradition would 
easily throw itself spontaneously. Each race naturally 
— necessarily, when races are isolated — supposes itself 
to be sprung from a single pair, and to be the first, or 
the only one, of races. Among a particular people this 
historical representation became the concrete expression 
of a great moral truth — of the brotherhood of all 
human beings, of their community, as in other things, 
so also in suffering and in frailty, in physical pains 
and in moral ' corruption/ And the force, grandeur, 
and reality of these ideas are not a whit impaired in 
the abstract, nor indeed the truth of the concrete his- 
tory as their representation, even though mankind 
should have been placed upon the earth in many pairs 
at once, or in distinct centres of creation. For the 
brotherhood of men really depends, not upon the 
material fact of their fleshly descent from a single 
stock, but upon their constitution, as possessed in 
common of the same faculties and affections, fitting 
them for mutual relation and association ; so that the 
value of the history, if it were a history strictly so 
called, would lie in its emblematic force and application. 
And many narratives of marvels and catastrophes in 
the Old Testament are referred to in the New, as 
emblems, without either denying or asserting their 
literal truth — such as the destruction of Sodom and 
Gomorrah by fire from heaven, and the Noachian deluge. 
And especially if we bear in mind the existence of such 
a school as that which produced Philo, or even the 



67 



author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we must think 
it would be wrong to lay down, that whenever the 
New Testament writers refer to Old Testament his- 
tories, they imply of necessity that the historic truth 
was the first to them. For their purposes it was often 
wholly in the background, and the history, valuable 
only in its spiritual application. The same may take 
place with ourselves, and history and tradition be em- 
ployed emblematically, without, on that account, being 
regarded as untrue. We do not apply the term e untrue ' 
to parable, fable, or proverb, although their words cor- 
respond with ideas, not with material facts ; as little 
should we do so, when narratives have been the spon- 
taneous product of true ideas, and are capable of repro- 
ducing them." 

Essay VII. p. 349 : — 

"It is true that there is a class of scientific facts 
with which popular opinions on theology often conflict, 
and which do not seem to conform in all respects to the 
severer conditions of inductive science : such especially 
are the facts relating to the formation of the earth and 
the beginnings of the human race. But it is not worth 
while to fight on this debatable ground a losing battle in 
the hope that a generation will pass away before we 
sound a last retreat. Almost all intelligent persons are 
agreed that the earth has existed for myriads of ages ; 
the best informed are of opinion that the history of 
nations extends back some thousand years before the 
Mosaic chronology ; recent discoveries in geology may 
perhaps open a further vista of existence for the human 
species, while it is possible, and may one day be known, 
that mankind spread not from one but from many centres 
over the globe ; or, as others say, that the supply of links 
r 2 



68 



which are at present wanting in the chain of animal life 
may lead to new conclusions respecting the origin of 
man." 

N. — Holy Baptism. 1 

Essay II. p. 86 : — 

" Holy baptism was at first preceded by a vow, in 
which the young soldier expressed his consciousness of 
spiritual truth ; but when it became twisted into a false 
analogy with circumcision, the rite degenerated into a 
magical form, and the Augustinian notion of a curse 
inherited by infants was developed in connection 
with it." 

Essay VII. p. 369: — 

" Or, once more, supposing the passage of the Red 
Sea to be regarded not merely as a figure of baptism, 
but as a pre-ordained type, the principle is conceded; 
there is no good reason why the scarlet thread of Rahab 
should not receive the explanation given to it by 
Clement." 

2 Article 0. — Authority of the Creeds. 2 

VIII. 

Essay I. p. 44 : — 

" We can acknowledge the great value of the forms in 
which the first ages of the Church defined the truth, and 
yet refuse to be bound by them ; we can use them, and 
yet endeavour to go beyond them, just as they also went 
beyond the legacy which was left us by the Apostles." 

Essay IV. p. 166 : — 

« It is very customary to attribute the necessity of 



1 The Mi- 
nistration 
of Public 
Baptism. 
Article IX. 



69 



stricter definitions of the Christian creed from time to 
time to the rise of successive heresies. More correctly, 
there succeeded to the fluid state of Christian opinion in 
the first century after Christ, a gradual hardening and 
systematising of conflicting views ; and the opportunity 
of reverting to the freedom of the Apostolic and im- 
mediately succeeding periods, was finally lost for many 
ages by the sanction given by Constantine to the de- 
cisions of Nica&a." 

Essay VII. p. 343: — 

" Again, the language in which our Saviour speaks of 
his own union with the Father is interpreted by the 
language of the creeds." 



P. — Athanasian Creed. 1 

Essay IV. p. 150: — 
" One unhappy creed." 

Essay VII. p. 366 : — 

" When maintaining the Athanasian doctrine of the 
Trinity, we do not readily recall the verse, ' of that hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels of God> neither the 
Son, but the Father.' " 

Q, — Nature of the Creeds. 

Essay VIL 353 : — 

" Now the Creeds are acknowledged to be a part of 
Christianity." 

F 3 



1 Article 
VIII. 



70 



But in p. 367 it is said, 

" The language of creeds and liturgies, as well as the 
ordinary theological use of terms, exercises a disturbing 
influence on the interpretation of Scripture." 

1 Article E. — Authority of the Church. 1 

XX. J J 

Essay I. p. 41 : — 

"In fact, the Church of the Fathers claimed to do 
what not even the Apostles had claimed — namely, not 
only to teach the truth, but to clothe it in logical state- 
ments, and that not merely as opposed to then prevailing- 
heresies (which was justifiable), but for all succeeding 
time." 

Essay VI. p 297 : — 

"In the present day when a godless orthodoxy 
threatens, as in the 15th century, to extinguish religious 
thought altogether, and nothing is allowed in the Church 
of England but the formulas of past thinkings, which 
have long lost all sense of any kind, it may seem out of 
season to be bringing forward a misapplication of com- 
mon-sense in a bygone age." 

Essay VI. p. 290: — 

" The Reformation had destroyed the authority of the 
Church upon which Revelation had so long rested. The 
attempt of the Laudian divines to substitute the voice of 
the national Church for that of the Church universal 
had met with only very partial and temporary success. 
When the Revolution of 1688 introduced the freedom of 
the press and a general toleration, even that artificial 



71 



authority which, by ignoring non-conformity, had pro- 
duced an appearance of unity, and erected a conventional 
standard of truth and falsehood, fell to the ground, The 
old and venerated authority had been broken by the 
Reformation. The new authority of the Anglican esta- 
blishment had existed in theory only, and never in fact, 
and the Revolution had crushed the theory, which was 
now confined to a small band of non-jurors." 

Essay VI. p. 328 : — 

" Church-authority was essayed by ( the Laudian 
divines, but was soon found untenable, for on that foot- 
ing it was found impossible to justify the Reformation 
and the breach with Rome." 

Essay VII. p. 343 : — 

" It is better to close the book than to read it under 
conditions of thought which are imposed from without. 
Whether those conditions of thought are the traditions 
of the Church, or the opinions of the religious world — 
Catholic or Protestant — makes no difference. They are 
inconsistent with the freedom of the truth and the moral 
character of the Gospel." 

Having thus examined the book under the third 
head of examination also — that is to say, whether 
specific passages be found in the book, being parts 
of the argument of the several treatises, which 
deny, contradict, or disparage the Inspiration and 
Authority of, or are, generally, contrary to, Holy 
Scripture, and which are, in other respects also, 



72 



contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England, 
as these have been set forth in her Book of Common 
Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and 
in her Articles : 

I conclude, — 

That specific passages, as above cited, are found 
in the book which deny, &c. (as above). 

I conclude) further, of the book generally : — 

1. That although its teaching has a certain ad- 
mixture of truth, this is, nevertheless, either so 
imperfectly or so obscurely stated under many con- 
tradictory aspects, and is so overlaid with error and 
false principles in respect of the relations of human 
reason and knowledge to Divine Revelation, as to 
render the book more injurious to true religion than 
if it had been written with the avowed purpose 
either of undermining generally the foundations of 
faith, or of denying or disparaging particular doctrines 
of the Faith. 

2. That the book reproduces and affirms, under a 
particular form, the deistical position, as this is 
stated, Essay VI. pp. 257-8, viz.: that " given 
doctrines or miracles " must be rejected as being not 
" conformable to reason." 

3. That the book, although presenting many 



73 



indications of religious earnestness, is full of tempta~ 
tion, of a character very seductive, not only to young 
and ardent minds but, to all minds which are unduly 
disposed to self-reliance ; and that, as such, it calls 
in an especial manner for exposure and warning. 

4. That, with one exception, the " Essays and 
Reviews " of which the book is composed, have been 
written by men who, as ministers of the Church of 
England, have come under the most solemn obliga- 
tions to accept, as the basis and the rule of all their 
teaching, those very things which, in this book, they 
disparage or deny. 



THE END. 



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